STALIN'S WINE CELLAR by John Baker

If you like books with any or all of the following - history, travel, deception, politics, lost treasure, secrecy, and of course wine but not necessarily essential, then you will love this. John Baker is a wine expert of, it would seem, some repute in his native Australia and elsewhere who also happens to be an excellent raconteur of his adventures in the underground wine world. Specialising mainly in top end, rare and antiquarian wines, when this book opens in the 1990s,  he is the owner/operator of a wine shop in the wealthy area of Double Bay in Sydney. With his trusty side kick Kevin they make a great team in finding and investigating the provenance of wines, getting themselves into possibly shady business dealings with high flyers, with nothing more really than their gut feelings and extraordinary knowledge to keep their reputations and wallets intact.

One day John and Kevin find themselves sitting at the top of a Sydney high rise being told a crazy story about a wine cellar in Tbilisi, Georgia formerly part of the USSR, that used to belong to Josef Stalin. A very large part of these thousands and thousands of bottles apparently belonged to Tsar Nicholas II and dated as far back as the 1860s. All untouched since the 1950s at the very latest when Stalin died. This is like the Holy Grail of wine. Now the owners of the winery in Tbilisi want to sell the stash, and somehow John and Kevin have become the experts to do it. Do they want the job or not.? Is this a silly question or not?

What follows is truly outstanding. Not just in the facts of what happens over the next few years as the saga of the cellar slowly and tediously drags on, with the surprising twists in it, but in the way John Baker tells the story. Like a wide eyed child, he and Kevin have no idea what they are in for when they board that plane in Sydney airport whisking them to the other side of the world. To describe Tbilisi as the wild west is a hilarious understatement and the reader is just as mesmerised by it all as the Australians. We meet George - mysterious and unpredictable lead negotiator, a number of gun carrying hench men, or are they really something else? John and Kevin are captivated by the landscape of the city, the beautiful rundown old buildings, the spirit of the people. And of course the wine cellar - what a totally bewildering and mystical place that turns out to be, requiring our two heroes to draw on all their knowledge, gut instinct and subterfuge skills to find out what is really there. 

This had me gripped from the first page, had me laughing and smiling at the antics of many of the players, plenty of photos to look at and enjoy. From Sydney to Russia, to London to France. It is a ride and a half, and I fully expect the highlight of the careers of these two characters. 

THE LAST REUNION by Kayte Nunn

 Lots and lots of novels set in Europe, the UK about ordinary people during and after WWII. But very few, in comparison, set in Japan, China or what was then Burma, now Myanmar. The cruelty and ruthlessness of the Japanese armed forces to prisoners and civilians is very well documented, but there hasn't been the same tsunami of fiction coming out of this history. This one is all about a group that you have probably never heard of - the Wasbies - the Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) which ran mobile canteens for the Allied soldiers involved in the Burma campaign - British, Australian, NZers, Canadians, Americans who made up the 14th Army. The Wasbies were mainly young women  - early 20s - looking for some excitement as well as wanting to make a contribution to the war effort. Having lived parts of their lives in British colonies such as Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, they were well suited to the climate and living conditions. But things were still very primitive, basic, at times dangerous but almost always exciting. Much of the detail in the story comes from the diary of one of the surviving Wasbies who wrote about her experiences in India and Burma with the 14th Army. Across thousands of miles of inhospitable jungle, mosquitoes, often in difficult conditions, and from time to time within the sound of the front line, these young women ran char and wads - tea and buns - mobile and static canteens providing the troops with a constant and reliable source of food and drink- all the things they were missing from home. 

Joining the Wasbies in the 1940s are Bea, Plum, Bubbles, Joy and Lucy. Very different personalities and life stories, they are thrown together, depending on each other for companionship, a shoulder to cry on, assistance in times of danger, sharing secrets, coping together. Not only do they have to cope with their living and sanitation conditions but also the amorous attentions from the soldiers - young and pretty women being very few and far between. The story is narrated from Bea's point of view - smart, hard working, a real asset to the team and to the Wasbies. 

In later years, 1974, Bea finds herself responsible for the disappearance of a rare piece of Japanese miniature wooden sculpture a netsuke. This special item becomes a key feature in the story, and in the relationships amongst the other characters, but it remains out of sight for many years.  In 1999 Bea finds that her home is beginning to fall apart around her, forcing her to bring the netsuke out for auctioning. But first provenance - that the netsuke is hers - has to be proved. How did she come to have this rare and expensive treasure? Into the picture comes Olivia, a young Australian woman who is an expert in Asian and oriental art. She is in living in London on her OE working for a ghastly woman, who despatches her to Bea's place to check out these items Bea wants to auction off. Things happen, resulting in Olivia and Bea striking up a friendship. Bea is an elderly woman by now, but has lost none of her feistiness. 

The reunion in the title refers to a New Year's party taking place in Galway at the end of 1999 at the home of fellow Wasbie Plum. Bea doesn't want to go, but to sort the provenance of the netsuke she has to, so she asks Olivia to go with her. 

Moving seamlessly between the two time periods, this is a really good story.  Great characters - the women are fearless, brave, terrified, funny, smart, positive, defiant. Olivia is a great character too, trying to find her feet in London, living the classic OE on rubbish pay, grotty flat, struggling to make friends. The Burmese jungle is a frightening and unknown place, the Japanese soldiers a constant threat and fear to everyone, Wasbies and soldiers alike. Yet somehow in all this chaos, danger, death, primitive living, they find love, friendship, dancing, laughter. Very uplifting, the power of friendship and shared experiences surviving 50 years. 

JUST IGNORE HIM by Alan Davies

 

If you do a bit of googling on tragedy/pain and comedians you will find lots of quotes about the relationship between the two. It is certainly most apt for this memoir from well known comedian and actor Alan Davies - out of the distress of his early years, a successful and it would seem well-adjusted man has emerged.  Such a sad story: a little boy bereft at the death of his mother from leukaemia, left in the care of his father who it transpires is a sexual deviant. What a legacy of pain, confusion, anger, loneliness Alan  has had to deal with. The book opens with Alan driving around the country side with a parcel of pornography portraying young boys that his stepmother has given him to hopefully get rid of. The power this man has had over Alan, his siblings, his stepmother, other family, friends and neighbours is extraordinary, his ability to manipulate any situation to suit himself frightening. And yet he is Alan's father - half of him comes from his father - the bond, blood or otherwise is never really completely broken. 

Alan Davies has written of a childhood that really was not happy, although he didn't really have anything to compare it with. His father started abusing him not long after his mother died, and continued till he was about 13 when he was finally was able to stand up for himself. Meantime he still had go to school, find friends, learn, pass exams, navigate the school yard social zoo. A bright, friendly popular boy who could so easily have turned into a delinquent, but didn't, learning the hard way that you can't buy friendship. Fortunately for Alan, he discovers drama and performing where he can channel his childhood trauma. Plus he left home. 

It seems this book has been written as he has come out the other side - full of reflection, of his early life and of himself, moving between his childhood and now as he navigates what to do with this bundle of pornography. There is a slight sense of him writing about a child that once was, almost as if he is looking down on his younger self, now in full understanding as to why he is the man he is now. It has humour, wonderful moments of memory of his short time with his mother, and yet the thread of betrayal and loss of his family runs throughout the entire story. Beautiful, sad, uplifting, and hopeful. 

THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah

 

What a gift this woman has for writing and how prolific. She is not bound by any particular geographical setting, or historical time frame, somehow able to make a memorable and gripping story out of anything. Maybe her next novel will be set in space! At the core of her novels are one or two strong, determined, intelligent and resourceful female characters, faced with circumstances that require them to dig very deep to overcome. This novel was finished during the first half of 2020, many people having enormous challenges to overcome. Reading this, or any Kristin Hannah novel, will, I am sure and hope, be hugely relatable to readers.

Elsa lives with her parents in a small town in Texas. It is early 1930s. Elsa is the ugly duckling in her family and treated as such. Despite being intelligent and self aware, she sees little future for herself in this town, dreaming of being able to leave and make something of herself. But she has spirit, and in a rare show of defiance she meets a local boy, the inevitable happens, and before she knows it she is Elsa Martinelli, banished by her family, and now living on a farm with her in laws. Not a good start you might think and what else can go wrong. Drought is what goes wrong, then the Great Depression. There is plenty of information on line about this time in US history, the dust storms, the havoc wrecked on the rural economies, the lack of help from federal agencies, and the mass migrations from these devastated and destroyed rural areas westwards to California. Life is no picnic when these refugees finally make it to the promised land with nowhere to live, no jobs, enormous prejudice, predatory employers - the complete powerlessness and hopelessness that these hardworking people find themselves in.

Elsa makes the monumental decision to follow others to California, taking her children, leaving her in-laws. The journey itself is hazardous, but nothing compared to what awaits them when they finally arrive in California. Elsa is an amazing woman, the safety and future of her children her driving force in all decisions and actions she takes. That defiance and burst of character in her teens explodes out of her as she tries to make a better life for her small family. 

This is gripping stuff, not only for the story line, but also for the author's vividness of writing - the lives of the farmers, how the dust storms and drought devastate the farms and crops, how starvation affects the body and the mind. And yet that instinct for survival just keeps on driving. Her imagery of the camps that the migrants find themselves living in, the pathetic and hopeless search for jobs, food, medical care. The lack of kindness, care and humanity from the people of California to their fellow Americans is pretty appalling.  Many parallels are drawn between what happened then and what has been happening in the US over the last few years, the author alluding to this in her comments at the end. A very powerful and engrossing novel. 

EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL by Eleanor Ray

 

A wonderful feel good story about a woman who has been let down by life, finally finds a way to cope, and suddenly finds herself challenged again by a little bit of serendipity. Amy Ashton is 39 years old, she lives in London, commutes daily to and from her admin job where she has been for the last 20 years or so. She lives alone, in the house she lived in all those years ago, before her boyfriend, the love of her life, and her best friend, just one day disappeared. No warning, no suspicious behaviour from either of them, no bodies ever found, no bank accounts ever touched. Poof. Just gone. The obvious conclusion is that they had run away together, and even the police investigation came to the same conclusion. 

For Amy, the betrayal of her lover and friend totally devastates her. She finds comfort and security in things, everyday objects that held meaning for her in happier times. Over the years she becomes a mega hoarder, her house quite uninhabitable, and Amy living a tiny life between her work place and the security of grossly overcrowded house. Then one day, a family with two small boys moves in next door. Children being children, they explore their neighbourhood, one property being Amy's. The resulting destruction of a collection of garden pots in the back yard begins the long, difficult and emotional climb for Amy out of her safe and secure existence. Can she find it in herself to start again, to slowly turn back the pages of the last years and find out what really happened to Tim and Chantelle, plus rediscover herself in all of this. Does she have the courage to do so? How many little steps forward and backward will it take for her to see that life really can get better?

So heart warming, and lovely to read in these times when we are being kinder to each other, reconnecting with neighbours, friends. Checking on each other. There is a little bit of Amy in all of us, which makes her so relatable, likeable, and so frustrating as she dilly dallys around, unsure about what to do as she is faced with different problems and decisions.  

THE PARIS LIBRARY by Janet Skeslien Charles

 

Novels set in WWII continue to fascinate, so much true factual material to create great plot lines and characters. And so much of the stories we are reading are about ordinary people who find themselves doing extra ordinary things. This novel is set, in a most unexpected place - a library. Who would ever think that the stereotype we have librarians being bookish old fuddie duddies could be so wonderfully challenged by the staff and volunteers at the American Library in Paris. This library has its own history, much of it touched upon in this story and there is plenty more on-line. During the war, after the Nazis took over Paris, it was under constant threat of closure, but the staff bravely continued to keep the doors open. 

Some of those staff and readers feature in this story, along with the fictional story of the lead character Odile Souchet. Odile is young, early 20s, passionate about books, reading, and desperate to work at the the library. She gets a job there before the war starts, overjoyed and rapt to be working in a place she has known most of her life. Once the Nazis turn up, of course, things aren't quite so rosy. Odile makes it through the war, but there are many losses of people, books, betrayals, tragedy. 

Parallel to this story, is that of Lily, a teenage girl growing up in a small town in the US during the early 1980s. Odile just happens to be living next door,  a reclusive old lady. Life is a bit tough for Lily with her mother seriously ill then dying. It isn't long before her father remarries, bringing that bucket of problems with it. Through a school assignment Lily befriends Odile, and finds for herself a refuge in Odile's company, wisdom and quiet house. But Odile refuses to divulge anything of her past, how she came to be in the US, what happened to her during the war. Lily begins to develop her own theories with some unhappy consequences.

The historical fiction part of the novel is very good, the author expanding greatly and using some fiction license to make a great story of the WWII story line. She gives a vivid picture  of life in Paris during this time, fear and hunger being the overriding problems that dominate daily life. The mysterious disappearance of anyone who gets in the way of the Nazi regime, the need to be constantly vigilant in one's own behaviour and speech is constantly there. Paris is made to look bleak, which makes the presence of the library, its sanctuary even more powerful and unifying  to the people who work there and use it. 

Where this falls down for me, is the post war 1980s story. I can only think that the author was trying to draw a parallel between the troubles of Odile during the war and the more present troubles of Lily. I know tragedy and life circumstances is all relative, but I did feel it was pushing the boat out comparing Lily losing her mother to illness with what Odile, her family and friends went through some 40 years previous. Lily still has her friends, her father, a house to live in, good food, school to go to every day. She is a typical modern day teenage girl - petulant, self absorbed, and often unlikeable. I do remember what it was like to be this age, and having had two daughters myself feel like I know what I am talking about and not making generalised statements. I am not sure why the author felt she needed to put the story of Lily in. Odile's story, that of the library and the other characters in Paris is a huge story in itself, and I feel could easily have been made bigger. Hence the 3 stars, otherwise is would have been more.

THE BEST OF A.A. GILL by A.A. Gill

 

How I mourn that this man is no longer living in this world. We are all the poorer for not having him casting his perceptive eye over the many issues he was drawn to. We miss his fearlessness in confronting topics many would rather not be faced with, his disregard for only writing nice things, not afraid to be negative, rude, completely politically incorrect and biting in some of his reviews of people, places, eating establishments. Audacious yet full of compassion and tenderness in much of his writing. Here is someone who can write about anything, any subject you could think of, and make it a perfect piece of prose with an angle, an opinion, an argument, an idea that you hadn't heard of. 

This book is a collection of his best writings, although I fully expect that to be subjective naturally, published in a number of publications, mainly The Sunday Times, but also Australian Gourmet Traveller, GQ, Vanity Fair, and Tatler. His subject matter ranges from his opinions about vegetarians, Starbucks, the restaurant Noma, Essex, Airports, Teletubbies, David Attenborough, Pornography, Ageing, and many others. The issue dearest to his heart is the refugee crisis - so perfect and heartfelt in its hopelessness, despair and personal stories.

What makes his writing more stunning is that he is dyslexic. There is an article about that too. All his work apparently is dictated by him and then transcribed. His brain is amazing, and maybe because it sees words and how to tell stories in a different way from us literate people, his approach to telling us what he thinks is more powerful than simply using words as we know them to tell the story. I don't know enough about how the dyslexic brain works, but I do know this is one extraordinary man. 

Wouldn't it be marvellous to hear his take on the year 2020? There would be a whole book of writings generated by this insane year we have just all gone through. Genius.